What I was right about and what I was so, so, wrong on

First off, hats off to Normal Lestrange, a fan who I believe had the first inklings that Harry Potter had a piece of Lord Voldemort’s soul lodged in him way back in 2005, before the mention of the word horcrux. What drove him to this conclusion?

It was one simple paragraph in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets .

And while Harry was sure he had never heard the name TM Riddle before, it seemed to mean something to him, almost as though Riddle was a friend he’d had when he was very small, and half-forgotten. But this was absurd. He’d never had friends before Hogwarts, Dudley had made sure of that.

That line made this person believe that there was more than just a simple connection between Harry and Lord Voldemort.

If anyone was posting on the Leaky Lounge in the early days before Order of the Phoenix, they would have been witness to the knock down drag out debates between Normal Lestrange and I over this one fact. But in my defense, in the early days of his theory, Harry was not extraordinary at all, all his gifts, all his magical prowess was due to Tom Riddle, a good Tom Riddle hiding inside Harry Potter’s soul. That is what I had difficulty accepting. My thoughts were that Harry was special, a diamond in the rough, and after the release of Half Blood Prince I was correct that Harry was extraordinary, his soul was untarnished and whole.

So after a few modifications as all good theories go through when presented with new evidence, I believe that Normal Lestrange hit the nail on the head, way before anyone I had ever heard, that there was “a bit of Voldemort inside of Harry.” So Hats off to Normal!! I was way off the mark on that one!

Snape, I thought was not a good person. I still am on the fence on this in fact, since it was Snape that treated Harry so poorly for so long. He did not ask for an innocent man or baby to be spared as well when he so clearly caused their terrible fates. Even after it was Snape who caused Harry to lose his family, he so clearly hated him. Was it that he just could not bear to look at him? Is it that he was the product of Lily’s love for James and that Harry was so obviously a mix between the two?

But why such a hatred for Neville? Why so mean to the rest of the students? How could Harry say he was the greatest headmaster along with Albus Dumbledore? He certainly was not fair to the students, biased from his persecution from James and Sirius.

Snape seems more of a tragic character, looking for vindication from the sins of his past. Why was he so angry with Dumbledore when Dumbledore reveals Harry must willingly die?

Snape was not Dumbledore’s man, he was not Voldemort’s man, he was his own man. I believe that he really did feel hatred for Dumbledore at the moment he cast the killing curse in Half Blood Prince. He hated him for his favoritism for Harry and I think he hated him for leading Harry down the path of death. Why, when he so clearly hated Harry?

Could it be that with Harry’s death Lily truly would be finally dead as well? Lily’s eyes were important as Rowling hinted in an interview so long ago. It was through Harry’s eyes that he could look upon Lily. Snape saw Lily and felt the guilt and remorse for her death and when he grabbed Harry and uttered his last words, I believe it he felt it was Lily’s eyes he was looking into one last time.

On to the rights!

I was correct in my assumption that Voldemort was after Grindlewald’s wand. I also spoke at length about the “Spear of Destiny” in this blog as well. I originally thought the spear was a wand and that Grindlewald used it to gain power, but that it would be a horcrux housed in Ollivander’s window. I also believed that Voldemort was after Grindlewald’s wand to counter the effects of the twin cores in Harry’s and Voldemort’s wands.

Well, I have to say I was close! If I had only combined the two theories! While many, including myself believed the Hallows were the horcruxes, it branched off in a completely different storyline about Dumbledore’s past.

Lastly, the chemical wedding.

I had always believed that alchemically, Ron and Hermione represented Sulfur and Mercury that must resolve in the chemical wedding in order for Harry to reach enlightenment. What did not fit was their age. They were far to young to marry inthe book. In Half Blood Prince, we had a red and white couple in Bill and Fleur who were going to wed in the next book. It fit so nicely.

I believed that at the end of the book there would be a child. Right guess but wrong couple! The child was a mixture of pure blood, muggle and werewolf, a combination of the past and the future, which I believed was a symbol for hope. We see Teddy, 19 years later and his antics on platform 9 3/4 oblivious to his tainted blood.

Lastly, I thought the child of the red and white royals would be a girl named Sophia or Rose. (thanks Weasel Diva!) Again, wrong couple right guess! The child of Ron and Hermione, Sulfur and Mercury, was Rose. Why Rose? Because in alchemy the Rose is the symbol for the completion of the great work.